Laozi · Daodejing · 第二十一章
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Original source spelling · punctuation belongs to the digital witness · pronunciation tools follow your language focus.
吾何以知眾甫之狀哉？以此
By what do I know the condition of these beginnings? By this.
zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes · Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed · CC BY-SA 4.0A route through this passage
11 Han characters · 10 distinct forms · 2 units separated by the witness’s punctuation
- Establish the frame. Read the surrounding chapter. Who speaks, what is being discussed, and which earlier words supply the context?
- Test one unit.
吾何以知眾甫之狀哉？
Mark a possible predicate and its participants. Record what you have supplied rather than found explicitly in the text. - Reconstruct the argument. Connect the units in your own words. Where does a description, question, contrast, or consequence depend on your interpretation?
Investigate 4 written forms in this passage
Matched by spelling. These are candidate reading procedures, not assigned grammatical analyses.
吾何以知眾甫之狀哉？Track speakers and addressees ↗吾何以知眾甫之狀哉？Locate the unknown ↗吾何以知眾甫之狀哉？Identify means, basis, and purpose ↗Watch recurrence: 以 × 2. Repetition of a graph need not mean repetition of a sense.
Computed from this exact witness · 1 contextual editorial excerpt also available. The guide is a set of reading prompts, not a translation. Sources & methods
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1 · Explain it in your own words
2 · Recover the wording
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3 · Explain, then revisit
How does the answer mirror the question?
Compare the editorial answer
何以 asks for the basis; 以此 names that basis demonstratively.
zimai editorial draft · not independently reviewed. Applies to 吾何以知眾甫之狀哉？以此
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Shared wording
Computed exact phrases in the pinned witnesses. These links do not assign a sense or assert borrowing.
老子 · 第五十四章吾何以知，以鄉觀鄉，以邦觀邦，以天下觀天下。吾何以知天下之然哉？以此。
老子 · 第五十七章吾何以知以正治邦，以奇用兵，以無事取天下。吾何以知其然也哉？以此。
Follow a connection
Shared teaching construction · an editorial learning connection, not evidence of common authorship or origin.
論語 · Notice an object before its verb未之有也論語 · Recover what the text leaves unstated本立而道生論語 · Recover what the text leaves unstated吾日三省吾身論語 · Identify means, basis, and purpose使民以時Edition, source, and reuse
- Work
- 老子 · Laozi · Daodejing
- Attribution
- Traditionally attributed to Laozi; composition and textual history are debated.
- Digital witness
- Kanseki Repository · KR5c0057 · base edition tls
- Contributors
- Kanseki Repository (Kanripo) contributors; upstream base-edition labels retained in each original file.
- Source position
- KR5c0057_021.txt, lines 32–33. LAO 21.2; tr. D.C. Lau 19i2: 31; here tr. Karlgren 1975
- Version
8f585085ff4ef2580eeb0f4376a763a62bcc7a95- Reuse
- CC BY-SA 4.0. Text extraction and teaching additions share this licence.
- Text policy
- Source spelling and punctuation retained. Encoding headers, page markers, paragraph markers, whitespace, and leading section numbers are removed from the reading view. No silent script conversion or textual correction.
- Teaching
- zimai · AI-assisted editorial notes. English renderings are excerpt-level reading aids, not a full published translation. Editorial pilot · not independently reviewed.
Source-file SHA-256: f5c7b2e51d056298b05f046577686ec4a7bd3ba413fc208dfe6a515c6f0fae43. A source comment that cites a translator is an upstream reference, not the attribution of a translation imported here.